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New Day

The Department Of Health And Human Services Will Announce Major Changes To The Coronavirus Vaccine Guidelines Today; Chad Wolfe, The Head Of Homeland Security Resigning Last Night; The FBI Is Warning Of Extremists Planning Armed Protests In All 50 State Capitols; Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) Interviewed on His Authorship of House Charges of Impeachment against President Trump. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 12, 2021 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, at least one officer took a selfie with a rioter, and another wore a MAGA hat and directed rioters around the building.

The clock is ticking for Vice President Mike Pence to force out President Trump by using the 25th Amendment. If he will not, House Democrats plan to vote tomorrow to again impeach President Trump. We will see him for the first time today since he incited that riot. But let's begin with CNN's Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill. What do we expect today, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we expect the efforts to begin that impeachment process to get under way, the actual efforts to bring this to the floor tomorrow. Now, today will be the first step in that process. Democrats are planning to bring to the floor a proposal to force Donald Trump out of office via the 25th Amendment of the United States.

Now, that has no chance of essentially becoming law before the election. And at the same time, Nancy Pelosi is giving Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence 24 hours to invoke the 25th Amendment on his own without the act of Congress in order to force Donald Trump out of office. There's no indication that that is happening. So as a result, Democrats behind the scenes are preparing, trying to get all their members in line behind this vote tomorrow that would make Donald Trump the first president ever in American history to be impeached twice. This charge will be on the incitement of an insurrection coming after his 2019 charges when he was charged with abuse of power, obstruction of Congress.

Now, the question, though, is, will this be enough to force Donald Trump out of office? And how quickly could this be actually taken up by the United States Senate? Democrats want to have a trial immediately. But Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, saying that essentially that will not happen until Donald Trump becomes the ex-president, Joe Biden becomes the president come January 20th. And that would mean potentially that this could be a bit of a distraction in the early days of the Biden administration to deal with the Senate trial.

But they need to get a two-thirds majority in the Senate ultimately to convict Donald Trump, prevent him from becoming -- ever holding an office ever again. Nevertheless, push is intensifying. That vote happening tomorrow, and Democrats say regardless of what the Senate is doing, they're moving in the House, John.

BERMAN: Manu, any sense of how many Republicans in the House will vote to impeach? There were exactly zero last time around.

RAJU: Yes, it's going to be different this time. They're not going to be a majority. In fact, a small fraction of the House Republican Conference might break ranks, which is significant in and of itself given how much this Republican Congress has been overall in lockstep with Donald Trump over the last four years.

But now we're expecting maybe up to 10 potentially. There's some speculation that could be the case. Liz Cheney, the number three House Republican leader in the conference, told her colleagues on a conference call last night that she called this vote a vote of conscience. And that's essentially what a number of top Republicans are signaling, that they're not necessarily going to whip it. They're not going to force their members to all fall in line and vote the same way, meaning that we could see some fray.

And I can tell you in talking to Republicans, they're uncertain how to respond. A lot of them are still loyal to Donald Trump, but they saw what he did last week as reckless and they want to respond in their own way. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Leader, floated censure as a possibility, something they should consider, possibly a bipartisan commission to investigate what went wrong. He is not supporting impeachment, but there are House Republicans who are pushing for a censure resolution, which would be just short of impeachment. But that is something that Nancy Pelosi is not going for. She's moving forward with impeachment. Ultimately, we'll see how many Republicans also agree.

BERMAN: Manu Raju, thank you so much for your reporting, really appreciate it.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman David Cicilline. He is the co- author of the article of impeachment charging President Trump with incitement of insurrection. And Congressman, I want to get into that article very shortly, but first, I do want to ask you, our understanding is that Democratic lawmakers were briefed overnight about possible threats to the U.S. capitol and the inauguration. Is there anything you can tell us about what you were all told?

REP. DAVID CICILLINE, (D-RI): There is not anything I can tell you. I will say, though, we were provided a briefing that also included the details of the work that's being done to ensure the inauguration proceeds safely. And while I think there's more work to be done, I have confidence that that will be the case.

BERMAN: All right, the article of impeachment that you crafted, it focuses on incitement to insurrection. What do you think you will have to prove in order to win that vote?

CICILLINE: Well, at the outset, it's important to recognize this was an attack on our democracy, an attack on the capitol in the middle of a very sacred ritual, the Electoral College, when the votes of millions of Americans are formally recognized and the president is elected, and the peaceful transition of power occurs. These rioters, these domestic terrorists, were incited to march to the capitol for the purpose of disrupting that process, and in doing so, to undermine our democracy, keep Donald Trump in office, and not allow the peaceful transition of power.

[08:05:12]

They came here to lynch the vice president, to hang him, to assassinate the speaker of the House, to hunt members of Congress. Five people died, lots of damage was done, dozens of law enforcement officers were injured. This was a brutal and violent attack on our democracy, and Donald Trump incited this by promoting the big lie that he, in fact, won the election by millions of votes, but it was stolen from him, something he's repeated and tweeted about and made statements about and whipped up the rallies about. And that morning he continued with the lie and told them to go fight, show their strength. He had speakers say we're going to have to engage in combat.

And so all of that whipped up these folks to -- and you're going to not have a country unless you to go and fight. And so it was inevitable that as a result of that language and those statements and the big lie that he sent these rioters to the capitol to march and disrupt the proceedings and attack the capitol and attack our democracy. So I think we will demonstrate unequivocally that the president's language, the statements he made, the promotion of the big lie made violence at the capitol inevitable. He's responsible for it. He needs to be removed from office immediately. He's a clear and present danger to the United States.

BERMAN: Does it meet the legal definition of incitement, and how important is that in an impeachment vote?

CICILLINE: Yes, we'll file an impeachment report today, about a 40, 50 page report, that details the legal basis, that details the facts that we all witnessed and saw. There's not a lot of investigation that needs to be done. We were all witnesses to this or victims of this. We all publicly saw the president's statements and his tweets. So this will lay it out in more detail, but it is absolutely sufficient to sustain the burden of proof for impeachment, and the Senate ought to try him immediately and remove him from office without delay.

BERMAN: You keep using the word "immediately." I think it's safe to say no matter what the House does, and it looks inevitably that you will impeach the president of the United States tomorrow, I think it's safe to say the Senate is not going to hold a trial to remove him immediately.

CICILLINE: I hope that's not the case.

BERMAN: I know you hope it, I know you hope it, but the indication is that Mitch McConnell isn't going to do it. So how much should that or does that affect your decision-making.

CICILLINE: It shouldn't affect it at all. We took an oath of office just a few weeks ago to protect and defend the Constitution, and that means to protect and defend our democracy. Our democracy was attacked. We have a responsibility to honor our oath of office, to hold the president and everyone who was involved in this attack, this insurrection on the government accountable. The only tool available to us is impeachment. We've called on him to resign. We've called on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. If that doesn't happen, Congress is left with one tool that our framers gave us for impeachable offenses, and that is impeachment of the president. We intend to do that. The Senate should do their job. But what the Senate ultimately decides to do is the Senate's responsibility. Our responsibility remains, and that is to impeach the president and remove him from office immediately.

BERMAN: One piece of reporting I heard overnight which, really, I find very interesting and perhaps might inform Republicans going to vote tomorrow. "Axios" is reporting that President Trump in a phone call with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was still saying it was Antifa who was behind the insurrection, it was Antifa who is doing the violence. According to "Axios," McCarthy, maybe for the first time, actually pushed back on the president. But the fact he is still spreading these lies, these conspiracy theories, what does that tell you about the importance of what you're doing?

CICILLINE: It tells you that Donald Trump is not going to change. He remains a danger to the well-being of the United States. He remains, if left in office, it is very likely that he will engage in additional grave misconduct that will harm our country and the safety of those who serve in Congress or others.

And so this is, again, a president who is unwilling to accept responsibility for his own conduct and always trying to blame somebody else. The FBI said Antifa had no presence whatsoever on Wednesday. That's another lie. And this is just evidence that Donald Trump is not going to change who he is. He's a danger to the country. We have a responsibility. Look, this is days before we're going to have a new president. The last thing we want to do is impeaching a president. But we have a solemn responsibility in the face of this evidence and this conduct and the danger this president presents to move forward. We invite our Republican colleagues to join us. This is an important moment where the country and the world is watching how we respond to this attack on our capitol.

BERMAN: Give me a number. How many Republicans do you expect to vote with you?

CICILLINE: I hope we will have a dozen at least. I think we'll have somewhere in that range. I hope we have many more, but I don't have a clear -- I'm talking to as many Republican colleagues as I can to convince them how important it is that they join us.

BERMAN: One of the changes that you made in the article of impeachment, again, which you wrote and you are the author of this, was to include a reference to the 14th Amendment, which deals with making sure people who are involved in supporting insurrection or war against the United States can't hold elected office. Why did you decide to include that?

[08:10:16]

CICILLINE: The 14th Amendment makes a person who engages in insurrection against the United States ineligible to hold office, which makes sense. If you led or incited or participated in an overthrow of the government you ought not have the privilege of serving in it. And so that's the conduct of the president that's at issue here. And I thought an explicit reference to the 14th Amendment was important because it may be that by itself is disqualifying without any additional action, and it certainly is insurrection, that is the conduct of the president was an attempt, or inciting an attempt to overthrow the government and substitute the judgment of the rioters for the judgment of the American people. It's a classic case of insurrection. So I thought it was important to reference the 14th Amendment.

BERMAN: David Cicilline, Congressman from Rhode Island, thanks so much for being with us.

CICILLINE: My pleasure.

BERMAN: So this morning, we're getting new information about what members like David Cicilline were told overnight about the nature of attacks that are still being planned against lawmakers in the U.S. capitol. We'll tell you what's being done to prevent this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: America on high alert this morning, facing what could be the biggest terror threat since the 9/11 attacks. The FBI is warning of extremists planning armed protests in all 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C., before Joe Biden's inauguration.

[8:15:00]

Joining us now, CNN White House Correspondent, John Harwood, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, Jonathan Wackrow, and Oliva Troye, she's a former Homeland Security Adviser to Vice President Pence.

So, Oliva I want to start there. Chad Wolf, the Head of Homeland Security, he resigns last night? Nine days before the Inauguration? He couldn't wait until Joe Biden's Inauguration? Number one, why? What do you think that means? And number two, does his departure make us less stable?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER TO MIKE PENCE: Well, it certainly shocks that Chad Wolf would choose this moment to finally resign after all of the things that he has lived and has seen happen but I do think that it's precarious for him to decide that this is the time to throw in the towel when the threat to the homeland is so high.

But here I was also confused on why he had decided to go ahead and proceed with his trip to the Middle East when we had clear indications that there were threats for January 6th yet he chose to travel overseas. His title is Homeland Security, right, his focus should be here. And so I think there is a lack of leadership right now, certainly at the Department of Homeland Security.

It's evident the balls were dropped in preparation for January 6th and so I think right now it's incumbent on the career leadership there to really take the helm and really crack down on this and prepare for what - you know the days to come because I don't think that this is an incident that threats would (ph) - the threat is high and they're going to continue to be more incidents.

BERMAN: Yes it's not over. I think the biggest thing we're hearing this morning, concerns that it's not over and Jonathan I want to put that to you. What worries you the most about what we're hearing this morning? We know Democratic Lawmakers were briefed overnight and some of the - I would say usual concerns about the Inauguration were raised. You know drones, suicide bombers, snipers, that type of thing but beyond that what is of unique and particular concern that you're hearing this morning?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, John, good morning. Listen, when law enforcement takes a look at these now emerging threats what they do in their assessment process is they look at the means, the opportunity, and the intent for individuals or groups to cause harm.

Right now, unfortunately we have the trifecta. We know that there are people who are engaged in domestic terrorism, we know that they have the means to you know launch an attack, we know that they have multiple opportunities across 50 states right now. And those aren't just State Capitols, it's also individuals, it's politicians, it's their residences. So, there's multiple targets and worse of all we know what their intent is. They're intent is to foment violence.

These are groups that believe in an apocalyptic, revolutionary ideology and their not going to stand down until they attain their goal. So, this is where law enforcement has a - has a real challenge ahead of them to identify these groups, these hostile actors, and put mitigation in place very quickly.

CAMEROTA: And John, where was the Commander in Chief while this was happening? For six hours while the U.S. Capitol was under attack, while police officers were under attack, while our country's law makers, all of them were under attack he hid in the White House and watched television.

We now know from the reporting that lawmakers were frantically calling him, those who had his cell phone number, "please send back up, please save our lives," he couldn't be bothered to answer the phone. This is the leader of the country who sat and watched, according to Maggie Haberman, at the New York Times, with something close to enthusiasm or delight as his crazed, extremist supporters were attacking the U.S. Capitol.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this is the most unsettling thing about this entire incident, which is that we have a President of the United States who is psychologically unable or unwilling to protect the country in the ways that we expect our Commander in Chief to do. I think we all have to acknowledge that given the fact that this was a - a terror attack that was incited, overtly by the President of the United States that he's in sympathy with the goals of the insurrection.

The fact that we have not heard from leaders of government agencies about exactly what they're doing, that is an incredibly frightening time. We - the best thing that we've got going for us was - is as Jonathan indicated a moment ago, that everybody's eyes are now open after this incident last week and law enforcement officials of goodwill around the country, in the states, and in Washington, and I would include Christopher Wray, the FBI Director in that group, know what they're facing and can do what they can to gear up. But this is a Federal Government that is not being led in the way that the country needs right now.

[8:20:00]

You know, we all remember there was a lot of crazy conspiracy theory theorizing after 9/11 where some people said, oh it's an inside job. It was not. That -- that was a fantasy.

In this case we have a president who has aligned himself with the people who carried out the terror attack and he's not willing to overtly, aggressively call that off. That's alarming.

BERMAN: Olivia, in fact, Axios is reporting overnight that the president told Kevin McCarthy that he thought Antifa was behind the violence, which is something we've all been told specifically there is no evidence of at all, it didn't happen. I mean, these were his supporters that were out there, fractions (ph) of his supporters, but his supporters that were out there committing the violence.

So, what is the fact that the president is saying that, tell you, and what's the impact on people who follow him when they hear that?

TROYE: Well I think they are empowered when they hear the president say this because they, to them, they're taking the message away that he's on their side and he certainly is. But, he has been on their side for several years now.

This is not a new phrase, he used the phrase law and order and Antifa to -- which he thought supported his campaign this summer. We know that DHS was complicate in allowing this narrative to be pushed when we clearly had indications that the rise of white supremacy and domestic terrorism was definitely on the rise.

There were testimonies and people testified to this fact. But, the problem is the White House didn't want to hear it. I know that the National Security Council also downplayed this internally. I had conversations with them where we had arguments about this, where we were not actually calling this out for what it was.

And I'll say this, I think it's going to be really important to confirm the incoming Biden Administration CHS Secretary as soon as possible, because I think that that is going to be critical to getting this National Security community and our Homeland Security community back on track.

CAMEROTA: Jonathan, I just want to play some video from Wednesday of what President Trump's supporters look like as they storm the capital, what they did. This is what he was watching, these are the people that he ginned up, this is -- are people with Trump flags, there's the moronic minotaur who, you know, led the charge with his spear, with the Trump flag on it.

And then -- you know -- now President Trump likes to say, oh maybe they were Antifa because he doesn't like how they look. He doesn't like that these are his people. He -- you know -- that the crazed -- you know -- foaming at the mouth folks are the people that he sent there.

He liked them at the rally when he said we love you, but now he has to try to back pedal and try to just pray that there are some sole Antifa person in there so that he doesn't have to take responsibility.

WACKROW: You know, Alisyn, the -- the -- the utilization and trying to blame Antifa is just a diluted excuse and quite frankly it distracts the moment. We have a few days before the inauguration, we have a national threat across 50 states right now by know domestic terrorists and for the president to try to -- you know -- distract with -- you know -- accusations that Antifa caused this is just causing more harm.

Law enforcement needs to remain laser focused and the need the public's help. Any type of warning sign, any type of pre-attack behavior, pre-attack indicators need to be reported and escalated to law enforcement now. The public doesn't need to hold back. We have a shared fait in the success of this nation and that starts today and we have to maintain situational awareness to ensure that this threat is fully mitigated.

BERMAN: All right, Jonathan, Olivia, John thank you for being with us this morning. And, of course, be sure to join CNN for all day special coverage of the inauguration of President Joe Biden next Wednesday, January 20.

So, the Trump Administration making big changes to try to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus. If you are 65-years or older you will want to hear this. Stay with us.

[08:24:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right breaking news, CNN has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services will announce major changes to the coronavirus vaccine guidelines today. The idea is to get more vaccines into more people's arms more quickly. Nearly 9 million Americans have been vaccinated so far out of more than 25 million doses distributed. That is far lower - far lower than we were promised. We were told that 20 million people would receive vaccines by January 1 that clearly has not happened.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta; Sanjay, two major changes to the guidelines from HHS today; tell us what they are.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so one is something that we've been talking about for some time and we heard that the incoming administration was likely to pursue and that is to longer hold back these second doses. Keep in mind; you have two doses for the two vaccines that have been authorized. The idea was that you distribute the first dose, hold back the second dose. What we're hearing now is that the current administration will no longer hold back those second doses. I think that does reflect an increased confidence in the manufacturing, sort of supply chain here, we'll see. We'll see how that sort of plays out.

The second thing is expanding these priority groups. You remember that in this what they call the 1A group it was healthcare workers and people who are in long term care facilities. What they find in a lot of places is that they may have doses that were otherwise not going to get utilized or not - can't be specifically designated for those first groups. So they want to basically say let's expand the priority groups so we're not missing out on vaccinating people and we're going to include people over the age of 65 or adults with other preexisting conditions.

That map, right now, you see on the screen that sort of gives you a reflection of the country. In red is the earliest phase; many states are still in that early phase of vaccine distributions.

[08:30:00}

GUPTA: Some have moved along. Michigan is furthers along in terms of getting people in the - in the later on priority groups vaccinated as well. So this may help.